Chapter 650: The Four Orders of Destruction

Outside Dingzhou City, a cloud of dust rolled in from the distance.

Moments later, thunderous hoofbeats shook the earth.

Xue Xiao, who had received advance notice and was standing atop the city wall, felt his cheek twitch.

Nor was he the only one.

Officials throughout Dingzhou's provincial capital felt their hearts tighten with unease.

Shang Chaozong, Grand General for Suppressing the Rebellion, had designated Dingzhou City as the assembly point for Nanzhou's forces.

Troops from Nanzhou's borders were streaming in from the southwest.

What frightened Dingzhou was the possibility that suppressing the rebellion was only a pretext and Shang Chaozong's true purpose was to seize Dingzhou City while the opportunity presented itself.

But who dared voice a suspicion without evidence?

Worse, there was no way to forbid the army from assembling here.

The war was urgent.

Shang Chaozong had not even mobilized the troops in western Nanzhou. He had directly ordered the forces in eastern Nanzhou to depart first, avoiding needless delays from gathering everyone in one place only to send them back across the same ground.

That was entirely reasonable.

And if Shang Chaozong insisted this was the best assembly point, he was Grand General for Suppressing the Rebellion. How he deployed his troops was his decision.

What would it mean for Dingzhou to refuse?

Was Dingzhou trying to delay the war?

The cavalry came thundering in like an avalanche.

When the order to halt rang out beyond the city, the riders stopped amid the rolling dust and became still as mountains.

A great standard bearing the character "Shang" stood above them.

On the wall, Wan Qingyan, Sect Leader of Xianyun Sect, stood beside Xue Xiao and asked, "Could these be the Yingyang and Wulie Guards?"

Seeing Xue Xiao nod faintly, Wan Qingyan could not help praising them.

"Merely from this army's killing air—moving like thunder, standing still as a maiden—you know the reputation was well earned!"

Once it became apparent the newcomers had no intention of attacking, Xue Xiao said nothing further.

He quickly turned away, led his people down from the wall, mounted, and rode out of the city.

"Your Highness, you have had a hard journey!"

The moment Xue Xiao met Shang Chaozong within the army, he laughed loudly and cupped his hands from horseback.

His gaze flicked toward the female general beside Shang Chaozong, long spear in hand.

Dust-covered from the road, Shang Chaozong sat upright in the saddle without reacting to the courtesy.

His face expressionless, he asked, "Are the warhorses, grain, and fodder ready?"

Xue Xiao looked somewhat embarrassed but still smiled. "The grain and fodder needed for the army's passage are naturally prepared. We have also gathered three thousand warhorses."

Ga Miaoshui rode out and positioned himself between the two, smoothing matters over for Xue Xiao.

"The army has traveled hard and must be exhausted. Lord Xue, why not first invite His Highness into the city to rest?"

"Good, good!" Xue Xiao wheeled his horse aside in invitation. "Your Highness, please!"

Shang Chaozong still did not move.

He continued, "How many of Nanzhou's troops have arrived?"

Xue Xiao had no choice but to answer. "At present, fewer than thirty thousand. They have established camp five li from here."

He pointed in the direction.

Shang Chaozong wheeled his mount, tapped both heels against its flanks, and galloped away first toward the place Xue Xiao had indicated.

Feng Ruonan followed.

Twenty thousand cavalry streamed after them like a dragon.

After the noise and dust finally passed, Xue Xiao, Ga Miaoshui, and the others were left standing there eating dust.

The two men looked at each other without words.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Xue Xiao could not help cursing. "I went to the trouble of preparing things to reward the army, and he doesn't even appreciate it."

Ga Miaoshui waved a hand. "Forget it. This isn't the time to argue over that. If he refuses to enter the city, that saves you trouble as well. Send the rewards to Nanzhou's camp instead."

He did not linger.

Leading several eunuchs, he followed the army through the dust.

Before long, a group came out of the city carrying slaughtered pigs and sheep, baskets of chickens, ducks, fish, and meat, together with cart after cart of wine, all headed toward the Nanzhou camp.

...

Nanzhou's temporary camp now held roughly thirty thousand men.

More troops continued arriving from behind, though those who had set out earlier from farther away could not match Shang Chaozong's pace.

There was no helping it.

The force Shang Chaozong himself led was cavalry.

The moment he joined the troops that had arrived in advance, Shang Chaozong ordered everyone to seize the time and rest.

The gifts Dingzhou City sent to reward the troops were accepted without ceremony.

The food was eaten.

Not a drop of the wine was touched.

Whoever had delivered it was made to take it back.

Shang Chaozong continued the rules from Prince Ning's era.

An army on campaign was forbidden to drink.

If there was wine to be drunk, it would be victory wine after the battle.

At the meal table, Ga Miaoshui, who had just returned from making a circuit of the encampment, asked, "How long before all four hundred thousand troops arrive?"

The imperial court was satisfied with the number Nanzhou had supposedly committed this time.

Nanzhou had originally possessed eight hundred thousand troops.

Most, however, had belonged to Tianyu Sect's old faction.

After the change of power in Nanzhou, how could Shang Chaozong possibly continue trusting them?

Better quality than quantity.

He had purged the eight hundred thousand down to five hundred thousand.

Only a small number of the three hundred thousand removed from the rolls had been executed. The others were all demobilized and returned to civilian life.

Because of financial limitations, Nanzhou already maintained more troops than any of the other regional lords.

Of its five hundred thousand men, it was supposedly willing to send four hundred thousand to suppress the rebellion.

The imperial court could find nothing to criticize in that.

Compared with other regional lords who had four hundred thousand troops yet were willing to send only two hundred thousand, Nanzhou's sincerity appeared beyond question.

Shang Chaozong said, "I have already given the order. Every unit is to force-march. Two hundred li per day!"

Ga Miaoshui had feared deliberate delay.

Hearing this, he relaxed considerably and nodded.

After the army rested, Shang Chaozong ordered it to depart again.

When Ga Miaoshui heard, he came rushing out of his tent and caught up with Shang Chaozong just as the Prince was mounting.

"Your Highness, the army has not finished assembling. Why leave now?"

"The rear forces will assemble here and then proceed to the next rendezvous point."

"The military situation is urgent. My vanguard must reach its position first."

"At the same time, we'll move ahead and supervise the route. If any local administration grows lax in preparing what the army requires, do not blame my military law for lacking mercy. I will kill without pardon!"

Leaving those words behind, Shang Chaozong led his troops onward once more.

Ga Miaoshui's expression tightened.

He immediately ordered the people accompanying him to send word to the imperial court and have it press the local officials along the route even harder.

Shang Chaozong was bristling with killing intent.

They had better not truly fall into his hands through negligence.

If he executed someone under military law then, there would not even be anywhere to plead the case.

At the same time, Ga Miaoshui felt somewhat more reassured.

If Shang Chaozong truly rolled forward with four hundred thousand troops together in one mass, it would have been deeply worrying.

The slightest unexpected change would create enormous trouble.

Ultimately, the imperial court still did not trust Nanzhou's army.

That was exactly why Ga Miaoshui had been sent to supervise the campaign and report immediately if he saw anything amiss.

Once he and his people caught up with Shang Chaozong, however, Ga Miaoshui discovered something else was wrong.

Most of the roughly thirty thousand troops who had gathered were infantry.

How could they possibly match the speed of Shang Chaozong's cavalry?

Almost all of them had been left behind.

When Ga Miaoshui questioned him, Shang Chaozong gave the same reason as before.

Because Xue Xiao had hurriedly assembled three thousand warhorses, another three thousand riders had now joined Shang Chaozong's mounted column.

Many of them were not cavalrymen by training.

They could only learn through practice on the road.

Under Shang Chaozong's murderous pressure, every local administration receiving military orders along the way exerted itself desperately to gather the required warhorses.

Yet Shang Chaozong did not use them immediately.

He merely confirmed that they had been assembled, then continued onward with his own force.

The horses were left behind for the infantry arriving later, allowing those men to mount up and pursue.

It was the same all along the route.

Ga Miaoshui even praised Shang Chaozong inwardly for the speed of his campaigning.

If all the regional lords had shown this kind of determination to suppress the rebellion, why would anyone need fear that the rebels could not be destroyed?

Only when Shang Chaozong finally stopped in earnest and established camp inside Jiezhou did Ga Miaoshui realize something was wrong.

The first warning came from Xue Xiao in Dingzhou.

He reported that Nanzhou's rebellion-suppression forces had stopped passing through Dingzhou entirely.

Then intelligence from inside Nanzhou arrived.

After a burst of troop movements throughout the region, the forces there had stopped again and settled back into place.

There were no further signs of additional troops marching out.

According to the combined counts gathered from along the route, Nanzhou appeared to have dispatched only around one hundred thousand men.

What was going on?

Ga Miaoshui sensed something was wrong and immediately barged toward Shang Chaozong's central command tent.

From outside, he could see Shang Chaozong, Meng Shanming, and a group of generals holding a military council within.

Everyone inside either turned or lifted his head toward Ga Miaoshui, who had been stopped outside the tent.

Shang Chaozong waved a hand.

Only then did the cultivators and guards outside allow Ga Miaoshui to enter.

The moment he stepped inside, Ga Miaoshui asked with a dark face, "Your Highness, where are the four hundred thousand troops?"

Shang Chaozong answered calmly, "Naturally, the troops are still on the road."

His bearing had changed the moment he entered a military campaign.

There was much in it that recalled his father, Prince Ning.

Ga Miaoshui's voice sank. "That doesn't seem right. From what I know, Nanzhou has already stopped sending troops across its borders. Counting those on the road together with the forces here, there are at most around one hundred thousand!"

Shang Chaozong said, "And what of it if there are only one hundred thousand?"

Ga Miaoshui stepped two paces forward and confronted him across the table.

"Your Highness said there would be four hundred thousand troops. I already reported that to the imperial court. Now four hundred thousand have become one hundred thousand. How am I supposed to explain this to the court?"

Shang Chaozong replied, "All warfare is based on deception. The imperial court itself is riddled with spies. How could this Prince allow confidential military intelligence to leak so easily?"

Ga Miaoshui said, "Wu Gongling has gathered two million rebels. How can one hundred thousand men suppress them?"

"One hundred thousand cavalry are enough!" Shang Chaozong replied. "Besides, are there not still the five regional armies?"

One hundred thousand cavalry...

Ga Miaoshui was suddenly shaken.

Only then did he seem to understand the arrangements Shang Chaozong had made all along the route.

Everything had been intended to ensure that the infantry Nanzhou sent out could all obtain mounts for the campaign.

The supposed four hundred thousand troops had been nothing but a smokescreen.

Shang Chaozong no longer paid him any attention.

He looked toward the generals on either side and asked, "Do all of you understand the arrangements I just gave?"

"Understood!" the generals replied together with cupped fists.

Shang Chaozong's face became cold as water.

"A great battle lies before us. The first necessity is strict discipline. Military law stands like a mountain and cannot fall!"

"Immediately transmit this Prince's military law to the five regional lords."

"My force will serve as the army enforcing military discipline. We suppress the regional lords, not the rebels!"

"Wherever my rebellion-suppression orders arrive: those who stall and refuse to advance—destroy them! Those who delay the opportunity for battle—destroy them! Those who flee before the enemy—destroy them! Those who shirk battle and fail to exert themselves—destroy them!"

"Yes!"

Every general accepted the order with cupped fists and dispersed.

We suppress the regional lords, not the rebels!

Ga Miaoshui stood frozen in place.

Even after everyone inside the tent had left, he still had not recovered from those four orders of destruction.

...

Not far outside the tent, Luo Da'an pushed Meng Shanming's wheelchair.

Huang Lie walked beside them with his hands clasped behind his back.

He glanced over his shoulder at Ga Miaoshui's stunned figure inside the tent and could not help laughing.

He too had only just learned that Nanzhou had sent merely one hundred thousand troops.

The earlier troop movements throughout Nanzhou had all been false appearances.

He had truly been kept in the dark.

"Marshal Meng, can a mere one hundred thousand men really force five regional lords to obey?" Huang Lie asked, unable to hide his concern.

Meng Shanming replied, "Do men who disobey military orders somehow have reason on their side? Whoever refuses to obey, we strike!"

"At a moment like this, if we dare strike them, do they dare strike us?"

"All one hundred thousand of our men are cavalry. If they try to run, they cannot even outrun us!"

"Heh!" Huang Lie could not help laughing aloud.

He lightly clapped his hands. "Without making a sound, you turned one hundred thousand men into cavalry. Marvelous, truly marvelous. What a fine 'Deceive Heaven to Cross the Sea'!"

Meng Shanming sighed. "His Highness had no choice."

"It is exactly as Sect Leader Huang worried earlier. The imperial court and our side are not of one heart. Once the war is over, they may tear down the bridge after crossing the river at any moment."

"If they cut off our grain and fodder, the whole army could be destroyed."

"With one hundred thousand warhorses in our hands, however, if circumstances demand it, we can slaughter the horses for food. That will be enough to sustain us all the way back to Nanzhou."

"If not for that danger, why would we go to such lengths?"

[End of Chapter 650]